I’ve mentioned my friends Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable on the CRAFT blog before, and Scott’s recent post about the ideal characteristics of the venerable sawhorse, along with a photo of some beautiful “indoor sawhorses” he’s made seemed like good fodder for a mention here.

Scott writes:

To me, there’s also something inherently a little sad about a workbench. Like a well-intended New Year’s resolution, a workbench tends to be over-built and under-used, its function shifting too easily from utility to burden. Sawhorses, on the other hand, take up very little space, and both their construction and use are perpetually open to interpretation. Now that I have more space than I ever imagined, I still opt for sawhorses over workbench, a strategy more in keeping with the ever-fluctuating scope and scale of my projects.

Scott’s been making amazing furniture and art projects for years, so I trust him wholeheartedly when he suggests that the most important characteristic of a sawhorse is that it be owner-made. A good first furniture project, indeed.